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MAJORITY REPORT 
 
 COMMITTEE m ELECTIONS. 
 
 The committee on elections to whom were referred the petition of 
 
 .!. P. Johnson, contesting the seat of Garland, and claiming to 
 
 have been elected representative from the Third Congressional His- 
 trict of Arkansas, and certain other papers relating thereto, have had 
 the same under consideration and 
 
 REPORT. 
 
 When tiie evidence produced in support of the contestants claim 
 ■was before the committee at the last session of Congress, it was found 
 to be so conflicting and unsatisfactory as to induce them to recom- 
 mend the allowance of further time to the parties to prepare their res- 
 pective allegations and proofs. To this end, and with a view of eon- 
 forming proceedings to the provisions of the act of the Congress of 
 the United States, in reference to contested elections, they reported to 
 the House a series of resolutions as follows : 
 
 1st. Resolved, That thirty days be allowed to contestant to amend 
 his notice if he 80 desire. 
 
 2nd. That the sitting member be allowed thirty days after such 
 amendment is made, and notice thereof, or after notice of contestants 
 declining to amend, in which to make and serve his answer thereto on 
 contestant, setting out in said answer the grounds on which he rests 
 the validity of his own. and denies the election of contestant. 
 
 3rd. That after service of the answer or expiration of the time 
 limited therefor, sixty days be allowed the parties to take evidence, 
 which shall be confined to the allegations and denials contained in the 
 notice and answer, and that the same be taken and transmitted to the 
 House under the rules prescribed by the act of the Congress of the 
 United States, approved February 19, 1851, entitled "An Ac 
 prescribe the mode of obtaining evidence in cases of contested elec- 
 tions." 
 
 The House concurred in the recommendation and adopted the reso- 
 lutions, thus prescribing the form of proceeding to be pursuedin con- 
 ducting tic contest. 
 
Soon after this action on the part of the House, on the oth day of 
 April, contestant amended his notice and caused a copy to be deliver- 
 ed to the sitting member. The latter upon his return to Arkansas 
 prepared his answer, now before the committee, a copy of which he 
 sent to the sheriff of Desha county, the residence of Mr. Johnson, 
 with instructions to deliver the same to him. This was not done, and 
 for his failure to do so the sheriff returned the paper with the follow- 
 ing endorsements ; 
 
 "Came to hand. April 27, 1862. 
 
 S. 0. Clayton, Sheriff. 
 
 "Not executed on account of Jilson P. Johnson being absent from 
 my count v. May 2?th. 1862. 
 
 S. C. Clayton, Sheriff. 
 
 Further and additional evidence has been offered before the com- 
 mittee by both parties. That of contestant consists in transcripts 
 from the poll-books of the several precincts or places of voting in 
 Arkansas county, deposited in the county court clerk's office by the 
 judges of election, verified by the certificate of the clerk and his offi- 
 cial seal. These transcripts show an aggregate vote in that county of 
 one hundred and thirty-three (133) for contestant, and one hundred 
 and ninety-five (195) for the sitting member, and an error in the re- 
 turns made to the Governor, the correction of which gives to con- 
 testant a plurality of eight votes in the district. 
 
 The sitting member has taken the deposition of W. E. Morgan, 
 Clerk of the County Court of Union County, for the purpose of show- 
 ing a loss of six votes, to which he was entitled in that County. The 
 deposition is taken without notice and the Committee do not hesitate 
 to reject it. Its admission w : ould not, however, change the result as 
 dependent upon other evidence 
 
 In their examination of the case, the Committee encounter a diffi- 
 culty in the mode of authenticating the transcripts and the absence 
 of proper certificates as to the official character and attestations of 
 the Clerk. They do not profess to pursue the requirements of the 
 Act of Congress in reference to contested elections, embodied in the 
 resolution of the House. By that Act, the testimony of witnesses 
 may be taken upon ten days notice, before any Confederate " Judge, 
 Chancellor, Judge or Justice of a Court of Record, of any State," or 
 " Mayor, Recorder or Intendantof any town or city," and when no such 
 officers reside in the Congressional District, before " any two Justices 
 of the Peace" residing therein. The Magistrate or Justices are em- 
 powered "to require the production of papers, and on the refusal or 
 neglect of any person to produce and deliver up any paper or papers 
 in his possession pertaining to said election, or to produce and deliver 
 up certified or sworn copies of the same in case they may be official 
 papers," he shall he liable to certain penalties, and it is then declared 
 that : 
 
 "All papers thus produced, and all certified or sworn copies of official 
 papers, shall he transmitted by said Magistrate with the testimony of 
 witnesses to the Clerk of the House of Representatives." — B rightly* $ 
 "Digest, Elections, Sec. 21. 
 
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 #* 
 
 Nor do the transcripts comply with the requirements of the Act of 
 the Congress of the United States of March 27. 1804. This x\ct pro- 
 vides that : 
 
 " All records and exemplifications of office books, which are or 
 may be kept in any public office of any State, not appertaining to a 
 Court, shall be praved or admitted in any other Court or office in any 
 other State, by the attestation of the keeper of the said records or 
 books, and the seal of his office thereto annexed, if there be a seal. 
 together wit'> a certificate of the presiding Justice of the Court of the 
 County or District, as the case may be. in -which such office is or may 
 be kept, or of the Governor, the Secretary of State, the Chancellor or 
 the keeper of the great seal of the State, that the said attestation is 
 in due form and by the proper officer ; and the said certificate, if given 
 by the presiding Justice of a Court, shall be further authenticated by 
 the Clerk or Prothonotary of the said Court, who shall certify under 
 his hand and the seal of his office, that the said presiding Justice is 
 duly commissioned and qualified ; or if the said certificate be given 
 by the Governor, the Secretary of State, the Chancellor or the keeper 
 of the great seal, it shall be under the great seal of the State, in 
 which the said certificate is made."" — Brightly Digest, Evidence, Sec. Id. 
 
 The transcripts have not been taken and transmitted according to 
 the resolution of the House, nor do they come clothed with the forms 
 of authentication prescribed by the general law. 
 
 The question then presents itself: can the Committee or the House 
 dispense with a part of these requirements, and if so, to Avhat extent, 
 in admitting evidence warranted by neither statute ? The question is 
 not free from difficulty, and the Committee have bestowed upon it 
 their careful consideration. 
 
 The proceedings before them are essentially judicial, determining 
 not only political, but personal rights. In this light they are evidently 
 regarded by the Act regulating contested elections, and the former 
 action of the House. As such, they do not feel authorized to dis- 
 pense with those safeguards which the law has thrown around evi- 
 dence of this kind for the security of personal rights. They deem it 
 more prudent to adhere to fundamental principles and to prescribed 
 rules, and leave for the guidance of others a precedent finding its 
 sanctions in the matured wisdom and ripened experience in which 
 these enactments had their origin. They therefore report the following 
 resolution : 
 
 Resolved, That A. H. Garland, is entitled to the seat now held by 
 him. 
 
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